Manchester City Council

Early help

  1. Summary

    This privacy notice explains what personal information is collected, what it is used for and who it is shared with. It also describes why we require your data, and the legal basis on which we does this.

    This privacy notice relates to the offer of Early Help. It provides additional information that specifically relates to this particular approach, and should be read together with Manchester City Councils corporate privacy notice, which provides more detail.

    We've made some of our privacy notices easier to understand. We hope they help children and some adults to learn more about what we do with their data.

  2. What personal information does this service use?

    Early Help uses personal information, such as names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers and email addresses.
    In order to provide you with help and match you and your family with the best support for your particular needs, we also need to collect some information about you which is more sensitive (known as special category personal information’). This may include information about you and your child(ren)’s:
    * gender
    * ethnicity
    * language
    * nationality
    * religion
    * country of birth
    * NHS number
    * GP details
    * health visitor details
    * education details
    * social care status

  3. What is your personal information used for?

    We use your personal data for the following reasons:

    • to provide you with help by referring you to suitable partner agencies which match your needs, so that they can assess what support will be most effective, and quickly plan how best to work with you and your family
    • to check how we are doing, and whether we are having a positive impact - this may include getting feedback from you
    • to promote the support we provide - if we have links with a service which we think would help you and your family
    • to keep our records and accounts up to date, so we can track what support we have provided and to who
    • to generate statistics about who uses our services. This helps us make decisions such as where to use our resources to ensure each of our services reach the people who need them and are as effective as possible. When generating statistics all data is anonymised
    • assess performance and set targets for Early Help across the City.

    The Department for Education (DfE) collects information from local authorities about children and families who receive Early Help. This is known as the Targeted Early Help Annual Data Collection (TEHADC) and supports the Families First Partnership Programme.

    Manchester City Council is asked to submit information that is already recorded as part of delivering Targeted Early Help services. This includes information about children, the support provided, needs identified and outcomes achieved. No new information is collected directly from children or families specifically for this purpose.

    The data is submitted securely to the Department for Education using a protected online system. DfE uses the information to:

    • understand the needs of children and families receiving Targeted Early Help
    • understand how support is delivered and by whom
    • evaluate the outcomes of support
    • support national and local planning and service improvement

    Reports produced from this data are used for analysis and monitoring purposes only and do not identify individual children or families.

    Information shared as part of the Targeted Early Help Annual Data Collection:

    • is limited to what is necessary and relevant for the collection
    • is handled securely and protected against unauthorised access
    • is used for monitoring, evaluation and statistical purposes only
    • is not used to make decisions about individual children or families

  4. What is the lawful basis we are relying on?

    The lawful basis we rely on for processing your personal information is:

    • where it is necessary for the performance of our public tasks (Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR’)).

    We collect and use special category personal information by relying on the lawful basis that processing is necessary for the:

    • reasons of substantial public interest (Article 9(1)(g) of the UK GDPR)
    • purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the Council or of you in the field of employment and social security and social protection law (Article 9(2)(b) of the UK GDPR);

  5. Where has the personal information come from?

    The personal information we use for families is not always the same; we only collect personal information where it is necessary to do so. We are provided with information about you and your family from:
    * You and your family
    * Greater Manchester Police
    * Education providers e.g. nurseries, schools and colleges
    * GPs
    * Health visitors
    * Housing providers
    * Local Job Centres
    * Victim Support
    * Youth Justice and Probation Services
    * Social Care services
    * Voluntary and community services

  6. Who will we share your personal information with?

    Your personal data is shared securely with the following organisations only where it is both necessary and appropriate to do so:

    • Education Providers e.g. nurseries, schools and colleges
    • Social Care services
    • GPs
    • Health Visitors
    • Counselling Services
    • Housing Providers
    • Local Job Centres
    • Financial Advisors
    • Greater Manchester Police
    • Victim Support
    • Youth Justice and Probation Services
    • Voluntary and Community Sector Bodies
    • Greater Manchester Local Authorities

  7. How long will we keep your information?

    Our retention schedule sets out how long we keep personal information for.

  8. Automated decision making

    Your personal data is not subjected to automated decision making or profiling.

  9. Your personal information and your rights

    You can find out more about your rights regarding the personal information used for this service. Your rights apply to the information held by the Council as a data controller, and the information we hold on behalf of the other data controllers.

    If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.

    You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you're unhappy about how we process your information.

  10. Contacting us about your data and updates

    We may change this privacy notice from time to time. Tell us if you want to know when we change this notice, or any related documents.